Our first movie of the day on day two of our Wisconsin Film Festival 2006 odyssey was The Milk Can by Matt Kresling.

The Milk Can is the satirical story of a long standing high school football rivalry between two small California towns, Ferndale and Fortuna, that escalates to civil war after a flood in Ferndale caused by Fortuna's levee. What had been merely a (mostly) good-natured competition for the possession of an old milk can soon grows to sabotage, to vigilante justice, and then to outright warfare with all the accompanying propaganda, jingoism, espionage, and atrocities. Of course, all this must be kept secret from the outside world...

It was entertaining, though at times confusing and difficult to follow. It probably would have been more effective if it had been about 30 minutes shorter.

This 95 minute digital film was produced on a very low budget, and over the course of a few years. From his talk following the screening, Kresling revealed that had been more a labor of frustration than a labor of love. He distrubuted a "making of" DVD entitled "Quagmire: The Making of 'The Milk Can'", whichm at 68 minutes, is almost as long as the film itself. I have not yet watched the DVD, as I am hoping that M and I will be able to find a time to watch it together.